1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for processing information outputted at a variable bit rate from a signal encoder, and more specifically to a system in which the outputted or generated information is organized into informational units commonly referred to as cells or packets (hereinafter referred to as cells or information cells), the information cells being suitable for being transmitted and processed by new generations of transmission networks, such as Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networks. The invention also includes certain devices or modules used in the application of the system.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is well known that the encoding of video signals uses compression techniques. The compressed signals are generally transmitted over transmission networks at a substantially constant bit rate. Since the encoders generate data streams at a variable bit rate, it is therefore necessary to use buffer memories to convert the transmitted signals from a variable to a constant bit rate. The use of such buffers, however, can cause adverse variations in the quality of the signal.
Recently, transmission networks able to treat data information streams at a variable bit rate, e.g., ATM networks have been proposed. However, these networks have been characterized by a series of problems, such as the probability of losing information cells and/or delivering some of them with a wrong information content. In addition, the cells loss can greatly increase in congested information transmission situations.